Conventionally, as a crime prevention device or an arresting tool for restraining an attacker possessing cutlery while protecting a user him/herself from attacks, a two-pronged fork has been used. Furthermore, a police officer uses handcuffs for capturing and arresting a criminal. The two-pronged fork, which has been used since the Edo era, has a two-pronged curved pressing metal piece attached to a front end of a long handle, and is used as a crime prevention device for pressing with the two-pronged part an attacker or the like who is vigorously fighting back against a wall or a floor to thereby arrest the attacker.
As such a two-pronged fork, for example Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-230800 discloses a “two-pronged fork-type arresting tool”, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-254697 discloses a “two-pronged fork”. The “two-pronged fork-type arresting tool” disclosed in the above documents are both configured such that the front ends of the two-pronged pressing part are movable to approach each other to attain a closed state, to thereby deprive the attacker of the ability to move freely.
The “two-pronged fork-type arresting tool” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-230800 has a sliding body provided at the center of a pressing part having left and right prongs, and the sliding body protrudes when the pressing part is open. According to this “two-pronged fork-type arresting tool”, when the sliding body is pressed by the body of an attacker or the like, the pressing part is closed to prevent the attacker or the like from escaping freely. The “two-pronged fork” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-254697 includes a pressing part having left and right prongs fixedly secured to an end of a supporting member, and a pneumatic cylinder attached to the middle part on the near side of the pressing part. According to this “two-pronged fork”, when a user manually operates an operating lever, the pneumatic cylinder is activated to thereby close the left and right prongs of the pressing part.
The “two-pronged fork-type arresting tool” and the “two-pronged fork” disclosed in the above Japanese Patent Applications are both configured to close around the body of an attacker or the like to thereby deprive the attacker of freedom of movement. Thus, the pressing part is large in size and difficult for a user to operate. Further, the body of the attacker who is vigorously fighting back is not maintained at a constant angle, and thus, even when a user tries to arrest the attacker by holding the long handle with both hands, the surrounding obstacles and clothes may hinder the user from closing the pressing part around the body of the attacker.
Furthermore, the two-pronged fork has the large pressing part with two prongs formed at a front end of the long handle, which is not only difficult to be loaded on a patrol car but also difficult for carrying or storing. The two-pronged fork with a long handle is unsuitable for quick response. Moreover, as the two-pronged fork is intended to restrain the body, the restrained person can still move the hands and legs freely even if he/she is deprived of freedom of action. Therefore, in the case where the attacker or the like possesses a deadly weapon like cutlery, the user cannot easily approach the attacker to arrest him/her. The user may need another person's help so as to completely restrain the attacker by depriving him/her of the ability to move the hands and legs.
Handcuffs are also used as means for restraining the wrists to deprive a person of the ability to move the arms. The user, however, may be attacked by an attacker or the like until the attacker is handcuffed. For using the handcuffs, it is necessary to restrain the body of the attacker or the like first to deprive him/her of freedom of action.
As described above, the two-pronged fork and the handcuffs each have both merits and demerits, and both cannot promptly respond to a crime at the scene. The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an openable and closable two-pronged body restraining device which allows a user to readily arrest an attacker or the like by restraining his/her hand or leg while preventing the user from being physically harmed thereby.